SERENA WILLIAMS: THE MOST DOMINANT WOMEN’S TENNIS PLAYER OF HER — OR OF ANY — TIME
Yesterday (07/09/2016) Serena Williams tied the Open-era record for Women’s Grand Slam Singles Titles held by Steffi Graf, notching her 22nd such honor.
Her 7–5, 6–3 straight set victory over Germany’s Angelique Kerber, 28 and currently ranked #2 world-wide, in the women’s Wimbledon final leaves her 2 behind Margaret Smith Court’s overall mark of 24 Grand Slam championships from 1960–1973.
(The Open-era designation was formalized in 1968).
Kerber, who defeated Serena in January’s Australian Open final, was rendered virtually helpless in the face of the 34-year-old Superwoman’s howitzer and laser-like serving.
Serena had 13 aces to her credit and lost only 5 points in all on her first serve but a more telling stat may be that 43% of her serves were not returned.
(She also hit more than 3 times as many winners as her opponent, 39–12).
At one point Kerber held her arms out widely as one ace after another whizzed past, in an expression which encompassed exasperation, resignation and mild frustration.
She recognized that on this day there was nothing she could do.
Serena Williams is a freak of nature and I say this purely in a complimentary and admiring way.
When God made an elite female athlete — and He/She did so in all shapes and sizes — Ms. Williams had to be the prototype.
She is powerfully proportioned, yet sacrifices no litheness or swiftness afoot. She is remarkably agile, even graceful with a take-no-prisoners mentality.
And she hates to lose.
(See racquet-smashing interlude after losing first set tie-breaker — the only set she dropped in the tournament — in second-round match vs. upstart Christina McHale, for which she had to pony up 10 grand).
She’s LeBron in tennis whites.
Perhaps the best part of Serena is even more sweeping than the intergalactic quality of her tennis.
She has a mentality and an attitude so fiercely strong and positive that when coupled with her steely resolve and bare-knuckle toughness, she literally cannot be denied.
She wills herself to win but at the same time understands that she’s not perfect, nor will she be.
Her losses to Kerber in Melbourne and to Garbine Muguzura in last month’s French Open, not to mention the devastating knock-out punch she absorbed from Roberta Vinci in the semifinals of last year’s US Open have in time made this clear to her.
“I’ve just felt, you know a lot of pressure; I put a lot of that pressure on myself…Once I started focusing more on the positives, I realized that I’m pretty good. Then I started playing a little better.”
The newly minted ladies Strawberries and Cream champ now has 7 such crowns. In her last eight major singles tournament forays her success is of the unparalleled sort and would be the absolute envy of each and every one of her court contemporaries: win; win; win; win; semi-final; final; final; and win.
When memories of her defeats are inevitably dredged up, she now forces herself to see the bigger picture. And when she does that, she wins.
Angelique Kerber knows well.
So do Timea Babos and Yaroslava Shvedova of Hungary and Kazakhstan respectively. Roughly five hours after Serena’s singles triumph, these two were the victims of the Williams sisters in the Wimbledon’s women’s doubles final as the siblings stormed to their 6th doubles title on the hallowed Lawn and their 14th Grand Slam doubles championship together.
So, as catching Steffi need not cement her legacy neither will surpassing Margaret Smith Court’s unfathomable 24.
Serena Williams doesn’t need it.
She wants it which means she’ll probably get it.
But need it?
Nah.
She’s the greatest at her craft who ever played the women’s game bar none.
And deep down, she knows it.
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in July 2016.]
ADDENDUM: Serena Williams claimed her 23rd Women’s Grand Slam Singles Title when she defeated her sister Venus 6–4, 6–4 in the 2017 Australian Open Final played January 28, 2017.
